The restructuring plan for the insolvent Signa Group of ex-billionaire René Benko is the wrong approach, according to the Austrian Financial Procurator's Office.
The promised quota of 30% for creditors can only be achieved if there is a "striking market recovery" in real estate, the president of the office, Wolfgang Peschorn, told the Foreign Press Association in Vienna.
He maintained that bankruptcy would have been the cleaner solution.
Such a break-up under the direction of an insolvency administrator would also have had the goal of the best possible realization of the existing assets and would also have guaranteed that those previously responsible for the disastrous developments at the Signa Group would definitely no longer have a say, he said.
Peschorn, who represents the legal interests of the country in his role, lamented a very limited willingness to clarify matters on almost all sides.
"There is not a great deal of enthusiasm when it comes to coming to terms with the circumstances," he said.
Peschorn, who was also minister of the interior from 2019 to the beginning of 2020, said that it should be questioned on the basis of which concrete considerations a reorganization plan was approved when there was not even money for the insolvency administrator's salary at the time of the decision.
Even the recently promised insolvency loan for Signa totalling tens of millions of euros would not fundamentally change the handling of the largest business bankruptcy in Austria's history.
In Peschorn's opinion, Signa founder Benko could face legal difficulties. "I would sleep very uneasily," he said, referring to the former property tycoon.
There are currently "numerous indications of criminal offences" surrounding the spectacular downfall of the Signa Group. Investors have described Benko as the "de facto managing director" and he was therefore presumably the driving force behind the transactions.
An investigation into the case, including critical scrutiny of the role of supervisory boards, would be very important for Austria and also for Germany, said Peschorn. "If this is not dealt with, you have to ask yourself what else is going on and why do we have legally regulated responsibilities?"
The public prosecutor's office in the southern German city of Munich has been investigating suspected money laundering at Benko's Signa Group since early March.
Until a few months ago, Benko was considered a multibillionaire, with the US magazine Forbes estimating the 46-year-old's fortune at $6 billion at the beginning of 2023.
Since the end of December, however, a whole series of companies from Benko's Signa Group have filed for insolvency.
Benko's convoluted company empire includes a portfolio of assets in Germany: the Elbtower in Hamburg, the luxury department store KaDeWe in Berlin and the department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, which is also insolvent.
Benko himself has also filed for insolvency in the capital of the Austrian state of Tyrol, Innsbruck.
